The field of this invention encompasses submersible electrical motors used to pump fluids from subterranean formations and in particular to bearings for maintaining the shaft of the rotor in alignment.
The stator and rotor are constructed in sections. Each section of steel is called a core and delivers a certain output (HP). In the stator, a stack (1.75") of bronze laminations is necessary between two steel cores. This bearing stack is known as bearing lamination.
The rotor bearings are typically made of nitralloy material. The motor is assembled so that these bearings operate in the bronze bearing lamination sections. When the motor is at room temperature, there is a small gap between the rotor bearing OD and bearing lamination ID for easy assembly and disassembly of the rotor cores and bearings relative to the stator.
As the motor temperature increases during operation, the bronze laminations with a higher thermal expansion coefficient, first expand outward--until the OD expansion is stopped by the motor housing--then grow inward (reducing the bronze lamination ID) to grasp the rotor bearings. The timing is critical. If the bearings are grasped before the shaft and rotors are fully expanded axially, a bearing failure will occur.
Since the motor winding goes through these bronze bearing laminations, a magnetic field is produced when the motor winding is energized. However, since the bronze is a nonmagnetic material, it acts as a large air gap so that the flux (magnetic lines) actually transferred through the nitralloy bearing is very limited even though the nitralloy is magnetic. With the present design, the bearing could spin until a certain operating temperature is reached.